Hi folks and welcome to yet another Necromunda article. Hopefully it’s another that folks will find generally helpful when it comes to running campaigns whilst it also answers some questions and a need for our own club campaign.
In this instance, it’s the need for some rules around how we are going to treat ‘underdogs’ or gangs that go into games significantly at a disadvantage, either because of previous losses, having numbers of their gang out injured, their opponents having done better out of roles for income etc or a combination of all of them.
It’s not unusual to have underdogs in games, most scenarios give random gang tactics card bonuses for each 100creds difference between the underdog and the other gang. However, this doesn’t always balance things up as much as you would like, especially if there are several hundred rather than say, 100-200.
For those of you who will have read through some previous articles you’ll know I am a huge fan of the folks at Goonhammer and their vast resources of articles on everything Necromunda, so for me, that’s the place to start. In particular, on this subject they have and article that includes how they suggest dealing with underdog situations.
I see no reason why this shouldn’t be everyone’s first port of call. In that article they detail how the underdog cards can be hard, and indeed, expensive to find. There has been a reprint of them since this article was written I believe, at least, that’s how I believe I got mine, and some shops may still have them in stock so worth checking if you have to have the official cards. If not, and you use yaktribe (and why wouldn’t you at this point), then you have access to some resources there including gang tactics cards along with the underdog tactics cards.
At this point we have some ideas and we have alternative cards to ensure everyone has access to them. Great place to start from.
What am I going to do with our campaign that differs to the suggestion by Goonhammer? For this campaign I am going to go with two changes to their suggested approach.
Sub plots: each gang has a card that represents a sub plot, they can play it once in the campaign after the first game, once used, the card is burned. Though, they may be awarded an additional one campaign games that I put on alongside the standard games.
House favours: at the end of each 4 week cycle, the gang with the lowest rating will be able to roll for a house favour.
The house patronage(underdog) table will now look like this, with the gang with the lower rating able to spend the difference like this:
| House Patronage Benefit | Credit Cost |
| 0-5: Draw a random Tactics Card | 100 each |
| 0-2: Choose a Tactics Card | 200 each |
| 0-3: Draw random Underdog Card | 150 each |
| 0-3: Temporarily hire a Ganger (the Ganger is removed from the roster after this game) | Varies (base cost of a Ganger plus any weapons or wargear available to them from their House List or equivalent. MAY NOT use items from the stash). |
| Unlimited: Recruit 1 or more Juves (The Juve is added to the gang roster as a permanent member of the gang. Standard gang composition rules still apply. May not be used to recruit Palanite Rookies). | Varies (base cost of Juve plus any weapons or wargear available to them from their House List or equivalent. MAY use items from the stash, though standard equipment restrictions apply). |
| 0-1: Hire a Dramatis Personae | Varies. |
| 0-1: Bounty Hunter | Varies (base cost plus weapons/wargear). |
| 0-5: Hire a Hive Scum | Varies (base cost plus weapons/wargear). |
Post Game Help
Resurrection Packages: A white dwarf (Issue 453) gave us some rules for resurrecting fallen gang members. If your gang is in a desperate position, it may be worth your while to appeal to your arbitrator for help! I plan to copy the pages and add them to one of the two folders I bring to club with helpful rules in them. They are a nice, fluffy option in moments of utter desperation!
Poison Spurs 